Higher Education IT Spending in APeJ to Reach $10.4B in 2019

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IDC Government Insights’ recent published research “Best Practices: Enabling Tomorrow’s Tertiary Institutions - Digital Transformations Through  Personalized Curricula, Collaborative Ecosystems and Smart Campus Initiatives reveals that the IT spending forecast in the higher education sector in the Asia/Pacific region excluding Japan (APEJ) higher education sector will increase from US$8.7 billion in 2015 to US$10.4 billion in 2019, with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.2%.

“Higher education institutions in mature economies display a more mature IT spending pattern, where IT spending is shifting focus from hardware to services and software spending components. This is because the APEJ tertiary education sector will be increasingly focused on addressing the urgent need to increase cybersecurity priorities of digital assets, reduce IT costs, improve business-IT alignment, and leverage cutting-edge technologies for IT consolidation and streamlining of scarce ICT resources”, says Shreyashi Pal, Market Analyst, IDC Government Insights.  

IDC Government Insights’ research also highlights that the opportunities for higher education in the Asia/Pacific region are rooted in personalized learning, collaborative education, and Smart Campus initiatives.  It believes that dynamic business and technology landscapes are bringing about rapid changes to traditional tertiary education demands and practices. Achieving adaptive agility has been more critical than ever to tertiary educators and educational institutions globally as a result of ensuring long term relevance and operational sustainability. 

The benefits of ICT in education varies from enhancing the learning experience and equipping students with new sets of skills, to expanding the reach of education to people having no access, as well as to reduce the cost of education. The success of these benefits, however, depends on the maturity of the ICT infrastructure in the tertiary education system and the willingness of education institutions to increase ICT investments. All leading drivers of IT investments in higher education are related to bringing about better operational outcomes through cost reduction initiatives. These priorities are notably universal across both higher education institutions in mature, and developing economies of the Asia/Pacific region.

IDC Government Insights have predicted that the 3^rd platform technologies will be driving the education industry transformation and bringing about this change namely are cloud or X-as-a-service models, mobility, social engagement and collaboration, and Big Data and analytics.

Third Platform technologies are bringing about higher education digitization and operations transformation. These new blended environments will offer seamless learning experiences, enhanced operational productivity to tertiary education users, open up new practices as well as operational excellence pursuits for the Asia/Pacific higher education sector in the coming years.   A blended and collaborative ecosystem that enables the intelligent, instantaneous, and gainful exploitation of organizational knowledge is critical.

"This is because the Asia/Pacific tertiary education sector will be increasingly focused on addressing the urgent need to increase cybersecurity priorities of digital assets, reduce IT costs, improve business-IT alignment, and leverage cutting-edge technologies for IT consolidation and streamlining of scarce ICT resources," says Gerald Wang, Program Manager, IDC Government Insights.

"By utilizing collaborative cross-functional ecosystems to resolve multifaceted challenges, Asia/Pacific tertiary institutions can gain greater productivity and efficiency as compared with independent endeavors”, Gerald Wang added.

IDC Government Insights found that tertiary education institutions today in both mature and developing Asia/Pacific economies continue to struggle with shrinking ICT budgets. They also face strategic dilemmas in choosing appropriately across a wide range of ICT solutions to effectively cater to differing individualistic needs and technology readiness.

Tertiary institutions in developing nations are noted to display strong overall growth rates with lower overall IT spending expenditure, and majority of their IT spending is concentrated in hardware expenditure. The Asia Pacific countries are now leveraging the investments they have made to focus on software and services. The maximum growth potential seems to be in software in these countries. Infrastructural software is the biggest focus area, followed by applications.

IDC believes the following key transformation drivers such as Democratization and widening access to education; Internalization of quality education through digital education initiatives; and the growing demand for personalization and widespread collaboration are expected to drive Asia/ Pacific education IT investment in the next two to three years. 

About IDC Government Insights

IDC Government Insights assists government policy, program, and IT leaders, as well as the suppliers who serve them, in making more effective technology decisions by providing accurate, timely, and insightful fact-based research and consulting services. Staffed by senior analysts with decades of government and IT industry experience, our global research analyzes and advises on business and technology issues facing the Federal/Central and local/provincial Governments.  International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology market. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world’s leading technology, media, research, and events company. 

About IDC 

IDC is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,100 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. For more than 50 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company.